On the surface, no system works! IF there were any bias whatsoever, it would have been found in the Markov Chain follower analysis.

For a week straight after finishing the app, I would update the app in the morning, write down the follower picks for 8 games (PA pick2, 3, 4 and quinto... day and eve), then check the list in the evening... there was 1 win in 7 days on the mid day pick 2... checking every day... now I did not play these... just wrote them down. I ran a similar paper play test for the PA treasure hunt and cash 5... no winners (some small prize matches, but it was all paper play).

They were not the first paper play tests I ever ran, but they were unique as the entire process was carried out in Android.

The statistics from the classifier function clearly show the distributions and "geometry" of the jackpot type games (TH and C5), but there are zero correlations between the stats and future draws... none!

I am glad I took the time to plan and build the app, but the bottom line remains that there is no way to analyze past draws to get a consistent wining pick. I have spent the better part of 20 years (on and off) only to confirm the gut feeling that the task is impossible. I never gave up, but the end result is the same as if I had.

So what good (outside of keeping sharp with coding and spreadsheet skills) came of the hobby?

Learning to incorporate a budget. The goal of picking just 1 combo was indeed the biggest takeaway... 1 ticket gets you in the game, any more for a single game is a waste.

Learning which statistics told the story I did not want to hear... while standard deviation is commonly used, the information provided by variance directly is more useful in determining exactly how chaotic these games get, from samples to full histories. Distribution quartiles show just how tight of a spread separates hot and cold.

Identifying the "churn", even if there is no way to predict the changes... I see how numbers change but frequencies tend to hold steadier... but guessing which numbers will be next in the churn is just that, a guess.

If there was a solution, someone would have found it by now... foolish ego thinking I might be smart enough to solve the puzzle!

Still plan on using what I built as a better solution to QPs, still plan on buying a ticket for games, but realized it is now on that fine line of a waste of time to go any farther down the rabbit hole.

Draws are independent.

Positions are independent.

Machine Learning cannot solve it.

AI cannot solve it.

certainly some random 57 year old with a 10 year old laptop and a CS degree isn't going to solve it.

One ticket is all you need to have that license to daydream.

Moving forward I will be looking at simple coincidental systems that meet the budget criteria (ONE ticket) and result in exactly 1 pick per draw. The "slide rule" concept will be first. Once I define the variables and constraints, I will develop that here in the blog for all to see. I may even incorporate some of these "coincidental" systems into the app... but just for the entertainment value.

The majority of the "hobby time" will now shift to exploring the bioinformatics landscape and applying 20 years of working with noisy data toward a domain that might one day do some good for others.